[SkippyTheBeerCan]

hey everyone.

Apologies up front if this is a repeat question, I couldn't find anything for it.  

I have a home with a number of kids, all of which have various devices.  I'd like to utilize Kodi as a centralized hub for all of our Movies, Music, Pictures, etc.  

My thought on how that would work is that I control the central/primary hub, while provisioning access to everyone else.  It seems you can do this via profiles, however, it seems to only work on the primary installation.  I'm not seeing how to utilize profiles cross device.  

Is there a way to configure/build kodi to have a centralized hub where each device would be a spoke?  Each device would get its configuration information, profiles, etc. from the centralize hub/primary server, rather than me having to configure Kodi on every single device?

Thank you all for the help.

[Klojum]

I'd like to utilize Kodi as a centralized hub for all of our Movies, Music, Pictures, etc.  

Kodi in itself does not do "centralized things" as a server. Kodi is a standalone HTPC client application, but there is an option to use a centralized MySQL/MariaDB database server for multiple Kodi devices to access metadata for movies, tv shows and music. Pictures are not part of that at this time.

Your media files are to be accessible in 1 or more centralized file servers, so that every Kodi client can access them.

There is a more technical option, but that is not available for all devices. Some people are using Raspberry Pi boxes with LibreELEC and have them boot via PXE, and have their full configurations stored on an FTP server.

Depending on the different types of devices you have, copying one setup to another is fairly simple and is typically done only once, with perhaps some additional details per device. Whether you want to use separate Kodi databases per device is up to you.

[SkippyTheBeerCan]

I'd like to utilize Kodi as a centralized hub for all of our Movies, Music, Pictures, etc.  

Kodi in itself does not do "centralized things" as a server. Kodi is a standalone HTPC client application, but there is an option to use a centralized MySQL/MariaDB database server for multiple Kodi devices to access metadata for movies, tv shows and music. Pictures are not part of that at this time.

Your media files are to be accessible in 1 or more centralized file servers, so that every Kodi client can access them.

There is a more technical option, but that is not available for all devices. Some people are using Raspberry Pi boxes with LibreELEC and have them boot via PXE, and have their full configurations stored on an FTP server.

Depending on the different types of devices you have, copying one setup to another is fairly simple and is typically done only once, with perhaps some additional details per device. Whether you want to use separate Kodi databases per device is up to you.

Appreciate the input.  Would have been nice if that was a feature of Kodi.  Guess it's the long way around. 

[Klojum]

Guess it's the long way around

Just to make sure: that 'centralized MySQL/MariaDB database server' can also be placed onto a simple Raspberry Pi 3/4 device (4 being the faster option), you don't need a full-blast PC for that.

[jmgibson1981]

While I wholly favor a Kodi approach maybe something as simple as a dlna server would be better for you? There are dlna clients for almost every device under the sun including most smart tvs these days. Dead simple to do on Linux, assuming Windows is just as easy.

[PatK]

Please explain how to combine several media centers

Please entertain the wiki links in the upper left of this page, specifically Syncing and sharing (wiki) Kodi does use resume points on stop.